This invention relates in general to welding, and, more specifically to a method and system for weld process monitoring.
As computers have grown increasingly important in today""s society, various industries have increasingly adopted computer controlled systems for more efficient and effective control and monitoring of equipment. Industries using automatic welding have increasingly used computer controlled equipment.
Industries involved with automatic welding have turned to computer controlled machinery to increase the efficiency of assembly lines. One common operation on an assembly line is the welding together of components. The welding operation is often performed automatically by a computer-controlled welding device. Often, a determination of proper operation of the welding device is performed manually by inspecting welds after they are performed. For example, a pry test may be used to determine a bad weld that has not properly joined two elements. However, manual inspection can be undesirable as many bad welds can be created before a problem is detected.
The present invention provides an improved method and system for weld process monitoring. In one embodiment of the present invention, a weld tip testing head is described. An alignment member has an aperture disposed therein and is coupled to a spring element. The spring element is further coupled to a mounting. The aperture is operable to removably receive a weld tip and the alignment member is operable to determine an alignment associated with the weld tip. Computer software is encoded on storage. The computer software is operable to receive the alignment from the alignment member and analyze the alignment with respect to at least one expected alignment value. The computer software is further operable to generate an alarm based on the analysis and generate a fault based on the analysis.
The present invention provides numerous technical advantages. Various embodiments of the present invention may provide all, some or none of these technical advantages. One such technical advantage is the capability to detect possible welding problems before many bad welds are made. By checking various elements of the performance of the welding equipment, problems and developing problems may be more quickly detected. Early detection of problems decreases the number of bad welds and increases the productivity of, for example, an assembly line.